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Miners' Lodges.
The Miners' Lodge or Branch is the basic unit of local organisation for the National Union
of Mineworkers. It is nearly always organised on a pit/lodge basis.
The lodge provides representation of the men to the management, and gives them a single organised economic and bargaining focus at local level, which has access to nationwide support through the echelons of the union at a higher level.
Lodge meetings are used at a committee and a general level to highlight problems and to discuss matters relating to almost any aspect of the men's life at the pit. The Lodge has the authority to undertake any functions delegated to it by the Area Executive Committee and has complete control over its own finances.
Each lodge is governed by the rule of its constituent association and is governed by a lodge committee. These consist of officers and between six and fifteen others. All officers and members are elected either annually or every two years. Each lodge then elects one delegate to the Area Council.
The records of the Lodge reflect its structure and its work. The records can be broadly divided into four categories. There are minute books which record the committee, general and annual meetings of the Lodge. There are financial records such as subscriptions made to union or welfare funds, as well as income and expenditure returns. There is also correspondence covering a wide variety of subjects. Finally there are administrative records dealing with day to day matters.
The Lodges are listed alphabetically. Within that the records are grouped into the
above categories, trying to preserve as much as possible their original order and the
information they contain.
(44 boxes, 37 files and envelopes and 252 volumes)
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